Various machine elements and other products are manufactured in casting processes wherein the support feet, support flanges and other components are formed with openings therethrough so that the cast product can be mounted to another object by extending screws or bolts through the openings of the support feet or flanges and into a supporting surface. The surfaces of the flanges, support feet, etc. of the cast machine element or other cast product usually are tapered so that the product can be extracted from the mold after the casting procedure. In order that surface of a product about an opening be suitably formed for receiving a bolt or other connecter element through the opening so that the bolt, its washer, etc., can sit flat against the surface of the flange, etc., it is necessary to spot face the surface of the flange about the opening so that the face of the flange about the opening is formed at a right angle with respect to the axis of the opening and becomes level to properly receive the bolt head.
Various spot facing tools have been developed in the past which include a stub shaft or arbor that is inserted in the opening of the work piece, and a cutter that is mounted on the end of the arbor. The cutter and arbor are rotated and the arbor is moved through the opening in the work piece until the cutter engages the surface of the work piece, whereupon the cutter treats or "faces" the surface of the work piece about its opening. With this arrangement the arbor is maintained in coaxial alignment with the opening in the work piece and the cutter is therefore required to form a facing surface about the opening in the work piece that is formed at a right angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the opening through the work piece.
The prior art spot facing tools are somewhat cumbersome in that the arbor usually is connected in driven relationship to a motor. While this arrangement is usable for spot facing work pieces where there are no other elements or protrusions of the work piece about the area that is to be spot faced, many work pieces include components or protrusions which leave very little space for the introduction of the cutter, arbor and its driving motor and other housing and support elements. Additionally, some of the prior art spot facing tools include an arbor with a cutter device pivotally mounted thereon whereby the arbor and its cutter both can be inserted through the opening in the work piece, and rotation of the arbor causes the cutter to swing out under centrifugal force away from alignment with the arbor, and when the arbor is moved back through the opening in the work piece the cutter is moved into contact with the surface of the work piece about the opening therein. While this is a workable arrangement, the cutter and arbor are not durable, and tend to wear rapidly.